Background : Control of intracranial pressure (ICP) before, during and after neurosurgical operations is crucially important. Therefore, trying different methods and drug combinations to attain this goal is an ongoing effort in anesthesiology. In this study we compared two combinations of a narcotic agent with propofol in neurosurgical operations to control intracranial pressure. Methods : In this prospective randomized double-blind clinical trial, we enrolled 34 patients with supratentorial brain tumors who were candidates for craniotomy in Alzahra Hospital in Isfahan, Iran from April 2008 to April 2009. The patients were randomly divided into two groups of 17, in whom the first and the second group, respectively, received a combination of "propofol and fentanyl" and a combination of "propofol and remifentanyl" as maintenance of anesthesia. The hemodynamic status, ICP during the surgery, and post-surgical complications in recovery unit were observed for and registered in a questionnaire. Results : Hemodynamic status was similar in both groups and they did not differ in recovery complications except for pain which was more prevalent in remifentanil group (P Conclusion : There is no difference between these two anesthetic agent combinations and both could be useful in the anesthesia of neurosurgical operations. However combination of propofol and fentanyl seem to be superior because of more pain relief and a smoother recovery period.


Background Running is one of the most popular forms of physical exercise worldwide. It is therefore discomforting that pain and overuse injuries are common among recreational runners. The coping concept is used to denote conscious efforts to solve personal and interpersonal problems, and seeking to master, minimize or tolerate stress or conflict. Objective To explore coping strategies associated with injury and illness management in runners. Design Cross-sectional study based on an online survey. Setting Recreational runners preparing for a marathon race. Patients (or Participants) Swedish recreational marathon runners. Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) Age, sex, and coping strategies as measured by the Brief Cope instrument. Main Outcome Measurements Episodes of injury or illness lasting at least three weeks during the past 12 months. Results The response rate was 38% (317/833 runners). One out of five runners reported a pre-race health problem, with overuse injuries with gradual onset being the most frequent problem and the knee the most common localisation. No statistical differences between injured and non-injured runners were observed for any feature of the Brief Cope instrument. Runners having rested from running due to illness reported higher scores for the adaptive coping strategy active coping (p=0.020). They also reported lower scores for emotional support (p=0.020) and higher scores for the maladaptive coping strategy behavioural disengagement (p=0.041) than runners not having rested for illness. Conclusions An association between active coping and rest due to illness was found among recreational marathon runners. Illness, usually having a sudden onset, seem to motivate marathon runners to rest more strongly than overuse injuries that normally have a gradual onset. The results indicate that health problems with gradual onset call for different approaches for behavioural interventions and prevention than those with sudden onset. Coping strategies among recreational runners warrant further research based on longitudinal study designs.


Lexical paraphrasing aims at acquiring word-level paraphrases. It is critical for many Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications, such as Question Answering (QA), Information Extraction (IE), and Machine Translation (MT). Since the meaning and usage of a word can vary in distinct contexts, different paraphrases should be acquired according to the contexts. However, most of the existing researches focus on constructing paraphrase corpora, in which little contextual constraints for paraphrase application are imposed. This paper presents a method that automatically acquires context-specific lexical paraphrases. In this method, the obtained paraphrases of a word depend on the specific sentence the word occurs in. Two stages are included, i.e. candidate paraphrase extraction and paraphrase validation, both of which are mainly based on web mining. Evaluations are conducted on a news title corpus and the presented method is compared with a paraphrasing method that exploits a Chinese thesaurus of synonyms -- Tongyi Cilin (Extended) (CilinE for short). Results show that the f-measure of our method (0.4852) is significantly higher than that using CilinE (0.1127). In addition, over 85% of the correct paraphrases derived by our method cannot be found in CilinE, which suggests that our method is effective in acquiring out-of-thesaurus paraphrases.


This thesis is entitled "Role of Police Institution for Advocacy-Malpractice in Yogyakarta". A
policeman as the one who upholds the law has a strategic position in preventing any advocacymalpractice
actions. A malpractice is a wrong-doing, neglect of duty as the dishonest use of a
position of trust for personal gain which goes against the proper regulation and ethical codes of
his/her profession. The constraints faced by Police Institution to handle this problem are the facts
that an advocate is a person who knows law well and expert in it so s/he knows how to break the
law easier than those who are not. The problem is the content of material law in the context of
authentication. Role of civil society is also important in preventing these advocacy malpractice
actions. Research method for this thesis was using juridical-normative law which was a research
that stressed the study of and data processing on law aspects by scrutinizing advocacy ethical
codes and the regulations on advocacy matters. This research needed primary data as the main
data and the secondary ones as the supporting data. Analysis method of this thesis was a
qualitative analysis. This method was conducted sistematically by performing inductive
reasoning procedures within the starting point of actual events based on actual regulations and
experts' judgements. Result of this research shows that Police Institution and Policemen should
be cooperated with the civil society in preventing advocay-malpractice actions. And as the
suggestion, any citizens are to report to Police Institution whenever the actions are met or even,
when they become the victim of the malpractice actions.


IN CANCER of the thyroid gland the downward spread of the disease by way of lymphatic vessels extending below the isthmus to nodes lying within the anterior portion of the superior mediastinum has been observed both at operation and at autopsy. The following anatomical dissections were done in order to devise a method for surgical removal of the tissues below the thyroid in continuity with the anterior superior mediastinal structures. The customary transverse lower cervical thyroidectomy incision was enlarged downward with a vertical incision in the midline to expose the upper three-fourths of the sternum. The sternum was divided vertically downward from the sternal notch to the level of the fifth intercostal space, then transversely into each fifth intercostal space as far laterally as the internal mammary vessels, which were isolated and ligated. The pleurae were dissected laterally away from the anterior superior mediastinal structures to the phrenic nerves on


The museum emerged in the eighteenth century as a powerful tool for the establishment and promotion of national identity and memory through the construction of narratives about the history of the nation. The fact that museums create narratives has prompted scholars to treat the museum as a text, opening up the possibility of 'reading' the museum alongside other texts. In developing a framework for such a study, postmodern theory plays an important role, given the current view that history itself is a text. Orhan Pamuk's novel The Museum of Innocence is an example of such a framework in action. Using the museum as setting (a 'literary museum'), and structuring his novel in such a way as to mimic and parody traditional museum strategies of display (the 'novel-as-museum'), Pamuk can critique universalising narratives about the nation and human civilisation, and instead embrace the heterogeneity of personal identity and personal memory.


This paper provides a comprehensive investigation of the determinants of US dollar-denominated long-term debt issuance by European banks. The database used allows the drivers of foreign-currency issuance identified in the literature, including variables at the individual firm (e.g. bank) level, to be explored. The analysis covers overall US dollar issuance as well as Yankee debt issuance, which is defined in this paper as bonds denominated in US dollars issued in domestic US markets by non-US issuers. In addition, issuance determinants are investigated during both crisis and non-crisis periods. The main findings are the following. European banks issue US dollar debt to naturally hedge their US dollar assets (with US dollar exposures obtained from BIS international banking statistics), but they also make extensive use of deviations in covered interest parity and even in uncovered interest parity, particularly after the crisis. There is also evidence that banks issue in US dollars for strategic reasons and that heightened volatility has a negative impact on US dollar issuance. Bank-specific variables are also relevant drivers of US dollar debt issuance: banks with higher asset growth, with a banking subsidiary in the United States and with a high credit rating are more likely to issue in US dollars than others. Bank-specific structures, as captured by deposit and loan ratios, also have a relevant impact on US dollar funding activity in some cases. The results are robust to alternative econometric specifications and to different definitions of covered and uncovered cost savings.


The innovation activities of foreign subsidiaries have been identified as an important source of competitive advantage for multinational corporations. The success of these engagements depends heavily on tapping host country pools of localized expertise. To achieve this foreign subsidiaries have to overcome cultural and social barriers (liability of foreignness). We derive potential stumbling blocks in the innovation process theoretically and argue that these materialize as neglected projects, cancellations or budget overruns. We test these hypotheses empirically for more than 1,000 firms with innovation activities in Germany from various sectors. We find that foreign-controlled firms are not challenged by liability of foreignness at the project mobilization stage. The lack of local embeddedness becomes more binding as projects have to be prioritized and managed which we identify as more frequent mistakes and delays. We argue that this is the result of shared practices within the multinational firm that do not readily fit into the local context. Finally, we derive management recommendations how foreign innovation engagements can achieve similar levels of effectiveness and efficiency as host country competitors.


Deep thermal well (75 degrees C) in Bekes county, South East Hungary has been studied. The chemical measurements showed that the thermal water coming from deep geological layers (> 800 m) contains up to 117.2, 35.2, 30.2 and 26 micrograms/l of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes, respectively. The objectives of this study are: to measure these naturally occurring compounds; estimating to potential risk and hazard index for the population who are using this well mainly for swimming and health baths; assessing the relationship between exposure to environmental chemical and human health; and to stimulate thinking about possible broader uses of risk assessment in identifying and solving public health problems. This paper is not intended as a complete study concerning the four measured compounds. A particular emphasis on benzene which is highly toxic and carcinogenic has been paid. The exposure assessment of benzene based on Risk Assistant model was done. The results showed that the Hazard Quotient (H.Q.) for benzene is more than 1 (requiring actions) and the probability of getting cancer from this exposure is 8E-5 exhibiting high risk for exposed population.


various methods. Chapter IV deals with the preparation of media and gives the formulas of all those commonly used. The determination of pH is also dealt with he~e. Chapter V deals with the technique of making bacterial cultures. Chapter VI describes special technical methods, such as filtration animal inoculation and vaccine preparation. Chapte; VII de~ls ~ith serologic~l techmque-eagglutination tests, determination of OPS?lllC mdex, the Wassermann reaction and the Kahn reaction. Chapter VIII deals with the collection of material from the patient for bacteriological examination. T.his is an important chapter in any text-book of bacteriology, as many specimens are ruined through inexpert collection. The chapter is unfortunately rather brief. Chapter IX describes methods for the identification of pathogenic bacteria and the appearances of growth on special media and special biochemical reactions. Chapter X deals with the bacteriology of water, milk and shell-fish. While this is of interest, the subject is dealt with very superficially and would be totally inadequate for those contemplating a course in public health. Chapter XI deals briefiy with antiseptics and disinfectants. Chapters XII to XLVI, the final chapter, are devoted to the detailed study of pathogenic bacteria. Chapters XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII and XIX are devoted to the subject of immunity. They are quite readable and give the fundamentals of this branch of the subject. There is no attempt at wide discussion, and the information given is suitable only for those seeking general knowledge. Chapter XX gives a detailed classification of bacteria, and the remaining twenty-six chapters are devoted to a more detailed study of each organism. In these chapters the principal parts relating to the various bacteria are given, but much new work is not mentioned. For example, in the chapter on the pneumococcus, no mention is made of the thirty-two different types now recognized, and the Neufeld "Quelling" reaction for rapid determination of type is not discussed. In the chapter on tetanus no mention is made of recent advances in treatment. The final three chapters are devoted to viruses, pathogenic protozoa and pathogenic fungi. There are numerous illustrations and there is no bibliography.


Gerrit Dou, an early pupil of Rembrandt, was one of the most highly esteemed Dutch painters of the seventeenth century, celebrated for the extraordinarily sensitive images he created with his fine and delicate technique. This beautiful book assembles and discusses thirty-five of his finest paintings. Founder of the Leiden school of fijnschilders, or "fine painters", Dou had an international clientele and was lauded by the theorist Philips Angel in his 1642 treatise Lof der Schilderkonst as an artist worthy of the honour accorded the ancients. The book presents a wide range of subjects painted by Dou over the course of his career. These include portraiture, still life, and religious images as well as scenes of daily life - mothers with their children, painters in their studios, scholars, shopkeepers, schoolmasters, musicians, and astronomers. Many of these works incorporate symbolic elements that Dou used to reflect the complexity of life's moral and ethical dilemmas. This book is the catalogue for an exhibition of Dou's works at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from 16 April to 6 August 2000 and at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, from 6 September to 19 November 2000.


Environmental monitoring systems deal with time-sensitive issues which require quick responses in emergency situations. Handling the sensor observations in near real-time and obtaining valuable information is challenging issues in these systems from a technical and scientific point of view. The ever-increasing population growth in urban areas has caused certain problems in developing countries, which has direct or indirect impact on human life. One of applicable solution for controlling and managing air quality by considering real time and update air quality information gathered by spatially distributed sensors in mega cities, using sensor web technology for developing monitoring and early warning systems. Urban air quality monitoring systems using functionalities of geospatial information system as a platform for analysing, processing, and visualization of data in combination with Sensor Web for supporting decision support systems in disaster management and emergency situations. This system uses Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) framework of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), which offers a standard framework that allows the integration of sensors and sensor data into spatial data infrastructures. SWE framework introduces standards for services to access sensor data and discover events from sensor data streams as well as definition set of standards for the description of sensors and the encoding of measurements. The presented system provides capabilities to collect, transfer, share, process air quality sensor data and disseminate air quality status in real-time. It is possible to overcome interoperability challenges by using standard framework. In a routine scenario, air quality data measured by in-situ sensors are communicated to central station where data is analysed and processed. The extracted air quality status is processed for discovering emergency situations, and if necessary air quality reports are sent to the authorities. This research proposed an architecture to represent how integrate air quality sensor data stream into geospatial data infrastructure to present an interoperable air quality monitoring system for supporting disaster management systems by real time information. Developed system tested on Tehran air pollution sensors for calculating Air Quality Index (AQI) for CO pollutant and subsequently notifying registered users in emergency cases by sending warning E-mails. Air quality monitoring portal used to retrieving and visualize sensor observation through interoperable framework. This system provides capabilities to retrieve SOS observation using WPS in a cascaded service chaining pattern for monitoring trend of timely sensor observation.


This paper proposes a method for recovering the sectional form of a musical piece from an acoustic signal. The description of form consists of a segmentation of the piece into musical parts, grouping of the segments representing the same part, and assigning musically meaningful labels, such as ldquochorusrdquo or ldquoverse,rdquo to the groups. The method uses a fitness function for the descriptions to select the one with the highest match with the acoustic properties of the input piece. Different aspects of the input signal are described with three acoustic features: mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, chroma, and rhythmogram. The features are used to estimate the probability that two segments in the description are repeats of each other, and the probabilities are used to determine the total fitness of the description. Creating the candidate descriptions is a combinatorial problem and a novel greedy algorithm constructing descriptions gradually is proposed to solve it. The group labeling utilizes a musicological model consisting of N-grams. The proposed method is evaluated on three data sets of musical pieces with manually annotated ground truth. The evaluations show that the proposed method is able to recover the structural description more accurately than the state-of-the-art reference method.


Stroke is a leading cause of physical disability worldwide. Sickle cell anaemia (SCA) is the most common cause of stroke in children. The aim is to determine the prevalence of stroke in children with SCA at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. Retrospective studies of patients with SCA (6 months to 16years) with stroke, over a 5 year period were carried out. Data was extracted from the medical records of patients. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data. A total of 256 medical records of children with SCA were reviewed. Of these, 11 patients had stroke (4.3%). Seven (63.6%) were below 10 years. The main clinical manifestations were seizure, 6 patients (54.5%) and hemiplegia 5 patients (45.5%). Recurrent stroke occurred in 2 patients (18.2%). Computed tomography scan reports of the brain were not available in 3 patients which confirmed ischaemic stroke. Stable-state haematocrit was below 20% in 72.7% of patients. One death was documented. The prevalence of stroke in children with SCA is 4.3% and children under the age of 10 years with low haematocrit values are at greater risk of developing stroke.

 Key words: Stroke, sickle cell anaemia, children, Nigeria.


This paper investigates how to improve the memory locality of graph-structured analytics on large-scale shared memory systems. We demonstrate that a graph partitioning where all in-edges for a vertex are placed in the same partition improves memory locality. However, realising performance improvement through such graph partitioning poses several challenges and requires rethinking the classification of graph algorithms and preferred data structures. We introduce the notion of medium-dense frontiers, a type of frontier that is sufficiently dense for a bitmap representation, yet benefits from an indexed graph layout. Using three types of frontiers, and three graph layout schemes optimized to each frontier type, we design an edge traversal algorithm that autonomously decides which type to use. The distinction of forward vs. backward graph traversal folds into this decision and need no longer be specified by the programmer. We have implemented our techniques in a NUMA-aware graph analytics framework derived from Ligra and demonstrate a speedup of up to 4.34× over Ligra and up to 2.93× over Polymer.


Objective: Chronic pancreatitis (CP) and metabolic syndrome (MS) share a bidirectional cause and effect relation. We investigated the prevalence and characteristics of MS in patients with CP and compared the same between alcoholic CP and tropical CP (TCP). Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional, observational study, we included serial patients of CP presented to our hospital. We excluded CP patients with other known systemic disorders, long-term intake of drugs that could affect the lipids and also excluded patients with features of exocrine deficiency. The study population is grouped as alcoholic CP (Group 1; n = 65) and TCP (Group 2; n = 37). A fasting blood sample was checked for all the biochemical parameters, and MS was defined as per the Asian modification of the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III definition. The results were analyzed by appropriate statistical methods. Results: The study participants (85 male and 17 female) had a mean age 40.8 ± 12.6 years, CP duration 3.7 ± 4.7 year, and body mass index of 22.5 ± 3.2 kg/m2. A total of 27 (26%) out of 102 patients had the presence of the MS, which was similar in frequency between both the groups (P = 0.0991). Hyperglycemia and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were the common features in alcoholic CP, whereas TCP patents showed hyperglycemia, abdominal obesity, and low HDL-C. None of the participants had all the five components, and seven patients had no features of the MS. Conclusion: MS is seen in a quarter of patients with CP, and the prevalence is same irrespective of the underlying etiology.


Modern software is developed to meet evolving customer needs in a timely fashion. The need for a rapid time-to-market together with changing requirements has led software intensive companies to utilize agile development, where each iteration aims at producing end-user value and change is embraced. In today's post-agile software development world, there is a need for processes and tools that deliver new software to the end-user as fast as possible. The level of adoption of these continuous software engineering practices depends on the product, customers, and the business domain. In this paper, we investigate the benefits gained from implementing a completely continuous delivery workflow using a domain specific productized development infrastructure through a descriptive single case study. Embracing the continuous delivery mindset throughout the development pipeline allows the case customer company to gain fast insight on new business directions and lends the services to live experimentation which in turn adds to end-user value. Up-to-date feedback cycles between all stakeholders all the way from concept design to end-users are offered.


In this paper we describe a new parametric model for synthesizing environmental sound textures, such as running water, rain, and fire. Sound texture analysis is cast in the framework of wavelet decomposition and multiresolution statistical models, that have previously found application in image texture analysis and synthesis. We stochastically sample from a model that exploits sparsity of wavelet coefficients and their dependencies across scales. By reconstructing a time-domain signal from the sampled wavelet trees, we can synthesize distinct but perceptually similar versions of a sound. In informal listening comparisons our models are shown to capture key features of certain classes of texture sounds, while offering the flexibility of a parametric framework for sound texture synthesis.


Bluff bodies are an inextricable part of life. They are found abundantly in engineered structures. When exposed to high velocity fluid flows, bluff bodies cause the flow to separate from their surfaces, which result in vortices shed from the bodies. Vortex shedding gives rise to large unsteady forces in the wake of the bluff bodies. The control of such forces is of great importance in engineering design because they reduce drag forces, vibrations and the generation of noise. There is evidence that the application of porous media to the surfaces of bluff bodies immersed in turbulent fluid flows has a profound effect on the associated aerodynamic phenomena. This idea is explored in this thesis by performing a series of experiments and numerical simulations on cylinders treated with porous media. The findings contribute to existing knowledge by providing researchers in the field with a trove of new, and carefully obtained experimental data on the flow fields generated by bluff bodies that have been modified by incorporating regions of porous media. These data will provide theoreticians with benchmark cases against which they can evaluate their mathematical models. The study is significant for two principal reasons. Firstly, it provides new insights into the fundamental mechanisms of the fluid dynamics of flows around bluff bodies, and secondly it has useful practical implications for the design of a multitude of systems immersed in turbulent flow fields. The novelty of the research is that it develops the idea of porous treatment by investigating the effects of the replacement of a part of a bluff body with a porous material and determining the efficacy of such treatment in the control of flow. The benefits include reduction of drag, vibration and noise, which in turn leads to the reduction in fuel consumption of vehicles and therefore a decline in the emissions of greenhouse gases.
In the experiments, cylinders that have circular, square and rectangular cross sections have been studied. Well-established benchmarks were set by measuring the flow fields around bare solid aluminium cylinders. The flow fields were also established around circular cylinders that had been encased in porous media, and which retained the same dimensions of the bare cylinder. The square and rectangular bluff bodies were modified so that their upstream and downstream halves consisted of solid and porous materials respectively. As a result, their leading and trailing edges were respectively solid and porous. The porous media consisted of open cell polyurethane. Three formulations were used that had permeabilities of 4.64×10−7 m2, 5.70×10−8 m2 and 6.87×10−8 m2. The corresponding porosities were 91.8%, 86.2% and 82.1%. Experiments were performed in a wind tunnel operating under conditions that resulted in a Reynolds number of about 53000 based on the diameter of the circular cylinder and the dimensions of the leading edges of the square and rectangular bodies. The flow streamlines, wake velocity profiles and Reynolds stresses were determined by means of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV).
The experimental investigations revealed that the porous media applied to the circular cylinder had the most effect on the wake, and the largest effect was observed in the wake generated by the most permeable material. The principal effect of the porous media was to cause the eyes of the recirculation region to be located further downstream. This effect is apparent in all three geometries considered, but the effect of the permeability is increasingly diminished in the square and rectangular geometries. The presence of the porous media also had a significant effect on the Reynolds stresses. For example, immediately downstream of the cylinders higher normal stresses in the direction of flow are generated by bare cylinders compared with those generated by the cylinders modified by porous media. The effect of the porous media applied to all three geometries is to damp the normal stresses further downstream of the bluff bodies.
Experiments provided results, which were used as benchmarks for numerical simulations. A CFD code, CFX using an SST-RANS turbulence model was validated against the experimental results and further investigations were performed numerically. Square cylinders with and without porous materials were further examined and compared with each other to expand our understanding of the flow structures around the cylinders. A porous material with a measured permeability equal to 4.64×10−7 m2 and a resistance loss coefficient equal to 1658 m−1 was used. The same configurations in the experiments, namely the bare square cylinder and the square cylinder with its trailing half composed of porous material have been examined. Furthermore, the effect of the disposition of porous material on the flow behaviour and drag force was studied by examining a square cylinder consisted of porous material at its leading half. The flow behaviour in the wake and in the boundary region, pressure distributions and drag forces were obtained in each case and compared with each other.
Investigations of the flow around the bare and porous-treated square cylinders disclosed that the trailing-half porous cylinder is the most effective in the control of flow. This was demonstrated through the location of the recirculation bubbles, and the drag force. Maximum shift in the recirculation bubbles occurred in the trailing-half porous cylinder. The biggest development in the boundary layer was also observed in the trailing half-porous cylinder. The presence of porous material both at the leading and trailing half of the cylinders resulted in a decrease in the drag force. The maximum reduction in the drag coefficient was achieved with the trailing-half porous cylinder by 13% compared to the bare cylinder. In addition, the use of porous materials significantly altered the pressure distributions around the cylinders, when the highest pressure gradient was found for the leading-half porous cylinder.


OBJECTIVE: To determine whether older age continues to influence patterns of care and in-hospital mortality for hospitalized persons with HIV-related Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), as determined in our prior study from the 1980s.DESIGN: Retrospective chart review.PATIENTS/SETTING: Patients (1,861) with HIV-related PCP at 78 hospitals in 8 cities from 1995 to 1997.MEASUREMENTS: Medical record notation of possible HIV infection; alveolar-arterial oxygen gradient; CD4 lymphocyte count; presence or absence of wasting; timely use of anti-PCP medications; in-hospital mortality.MAIN RESULTS: Compared to younger patients, patients ≥50 years of age were less likely to have HIV mentioned in their progress notes (70% vs 82%, P<.001), have mild or moderately severe PCP cases at admission (89% vs 96%, P<.002), receive anti-PCP medications within the first 2 days of hospitalization (86% vs 93%, P<.002), and survive hospitalization (82% vs 90%, P<.003). However, age was not a significant predictor of mortality after adjustment for severity of PCP and timeliness of therapy.CONCLUSIONS: While inpatient PCP mortality has improved by 50% in the past decade, 2-fold age-related mortality differences persist. As in the 1980s, these differences are associated with lower rates of recognition of HIV, increased severity of illness at admission, and delays in initiation of PCP-specific treatments among older individuals—factors suggestive of delayed recognition of HIV infection, pneumonia, and PCP, respectively. Continued vigilance for the possibility of HIV and HIV-related PCP among persons ≥50 years of age who present with new pulmonary symptoms should be encouraged.


Background Non-motor features of Huntington's disease (HD) include metabolic changes such as increased appetite, insulin resistance and changes in body weight. As mutant huntingtin (htt) is ubiquitously expressed in HD as well as in most animal models that recapitulate these features, it has not been possible to determine the underlying pathology. Metabolism is regulated by the hypothalamus and previous reports have suggested hypothalamic dysfunction in HD including loss of orexin (hypocretin), a neuropeptide involved in the control of sleep, metabolism and emotion. Aims The aim of this study was to test if selective expression of mutant htt in the hypothalamus would lead to metabolic disturbances. Methods We used adeno associated viral vectors as tools to deliver the first 853 amino acid fragment of either the wild-type or mutant form of the htt gene in the hypothalamus of mice. Results We detected formation of htt inclusions and ubiquitinated aggregates in the absence of general cell loss, gliosis or microglia activation in the hypothalamus. Interestingly, selective hypothalamic expression of mutant htt, but not the wild-type form of htt expressed at a similar level, caused severe metabolic disturbances including glucose intolerance, insulin and leptin resistance as well as a significant increase in body fat and body weight. These changes were accompanied by loss of orexin. Conclusions This study provides evidence for a causative relationship between the effects of mutant htt in the hypothalamus and the development of metabolic disturbances.


In 2004, Chalmers University of Technology in Goteborg, Sweden, decided to develop a project-based course for third-year students enrolled in its five-year engineering programmes. The motives were (a) that many of these programmes lacked a project course aimed at developing skills in project planning, teamwork and communication prior to the fifthyear master thesis project, and (b) that the introduction of a Bologna framework-style 3+2 education required the introduction of a bachelor thesis project. The project course was offered for the first time in spring 2007. The aims of the Chalmers project course are that the students should integrate, deepen and develop knowledge and competency acquired during the first three study years. The course also aims to give the students good competencies to participate in project teams, using a critical and reflecting way of addressing and solving the project task. The project course is a large-scale endeavour: The course is compulsory for the students of fourteen "Civilingenjor" (MSc in Engineering) programmes and the Architecture programme. Each year, around 900 students are enrolled, working on 200 projects in many different areas, ranging from fundamental physics to architecture. The course size is 15 ECTS credits. A large number of faculty and staff are involved – teachers, administrative staff, librarians, linguistic staff etc. The course is very complex with all its different course elements that need to be coordinated. The aim of the paper is to describe the development process of the project course, account for the course design, including the intended learning outcomes, the teaching approach and the assessment schema and to evaluate the experience from running the courses focusing on challenges deriving from the scale of the course, and from assessment of team-based project courses. The project course has been carefully evaluated during its first two years. The evaluation results show that there have been problems with to provide clear and consistent information to students and staff and to clarify roles and responsibilities. Despite these information issues the students have a highly positive attitude towards the project course. Also the teachers are very satisfied with the quality and conduct of the students project work.


An ad hoc network is a cooperative engagement of a collection of mobile nodes without the required intervention of any centralized access point or existing infrastructure. Topology control is needed in ad hoc networks to conserve energy and maximize network lifetime while maintaining network connectivity. We propose a topology control protocol based on leader election and density based clustering. We also discuss the alone-soldier-node problem.


ABSTRACT While the debate about further integration is ongoing, the European Union (EU) already shows signs of functioning like a state. The dynamics of the European integration process are defined by the duality of inter-governmentalism and supranationalism. This contradiction encouraged the development of the EU as a new hybrid political organisation. A software-assisted discourse analysis of the European State of the Union Addresses highlights that Presidents of the EU Commission have indeed conceptualised the Union both as a state-like entity and an intergovernmental institution because of its unique process of evolution, as evidenced by parallelism with the US event, the co-occurrence of conventional metaphors of statehood and EU-related metaphors as well as the merging of the concepts of "Europe" and "European Union" in the Addresses. Overall, the Addresses have contributed to creating a context of statehood for the EU on the one hand, and to reinforcing the position of the Presidents of the European Commission of the EU Parliament as leaders of the EU on the other.


The cornea is the clear, dome-shaped covering of the eye. RCEs occur when the outer layer of the cornea, known as the epithelium, loosens or peels off. Normally the epithelium is tightly adhered to the layer of the cornea beneath it. The eye becomes very painful with RCE since the cornea is very sensitive to any disruption of cells. The pain frequently is worse upon awakening. When the eyelids are closed during sleep, the reduced oxygen supply causes mild swelling of the epithelium. This swelling can cause the epithelium to bubble and become stuck to the under surface of the eyelid. Upon awakening, this loose tissue peels off when opening the eyelids resulting in severe pain.


Following close to two decades of political distress and economic decline, Uganda embarked, in the mid 1980s, on far-reaching reforms under Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Movement. Decentralization was emphasized, with the new leaders highlighting the importance of proximity to policymakers and the necessity of engaging communities in the formulation of policies, which affected them in their daily activities. However, while much has been achieved under decentralization, a number of constraints remain. Lack of financial and human resources at the local level being the most acute problem. It limits the ability of local leaders to implement policies and programmes, and reduces the independence of local governments, with their leaders continuing to be beholden to the central government. The chapter concludes that decentralization is a process and, therefore, steady progress in capacity and institutional building is more important than isolated breakthroughs.


The New Jersey Master Faculty Program is a state-wide faculty-oriented program designed to increase teaching effectiveness and student learning. The participating faculty are grouped into pairs. One member assumes the role of observer and the other the role of observed. The roles of the members changes each semester. Six students taking an 'observed course' are selected at the beginning of the semester; three of these meet regularly with the observer and the other three with the course instructor, the 'observed'. The aim of these interviews is to investigate how students learn and what impediments they encounter in their learning process. The ultimate goal is to use the knowledge obtained from discussions with the paired faculty member and the students to enhance teaching effectiveness of the faculty involved. The author describes the Master Faculty Program, topics discussed with students, and how the program is implemented at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.<<ETX>>


Since the first generation of deliberative democratic theory, and the 'deliberative turn' in the 1990s, many societies around the world have become more institutionally fragile, multi-dimensionally unjust, and deeply divided. Does deliberative democracy have a constructive role to play in in these more challenging times in politics? As scholars of deliberation widen their ambit to explore broader forms of political communication, interactions between directly deliberative and non-deliberative institutions, and the roles for forms of highly adversarial political action, developments in deliberative democratic theory can help to guide efforts to strengthen our institutions in the short term and create political arrangements that are more just and democratic in the longer term.


We report a Ge-on-Si photodetector without doped Ge or Ge-metal contacts. Despite the simplified fabrication process, the device shows a responsivity of 1.14 A/W at -4 V reverse bias and 1.44 A/W at -12V, at 1550 nm wavelength. Dark current is less than 1µA under both bias conditions. We also demonstrate open eye diagrams at 40Gb/s.


It has been shown that the desensibilization of the enzymic preparations of Na+, K+-ATPase by urea, DS-Na, digitonin and CHAPS reduces differently the amount of alpha beta-protomer in the enzymic preparations and the Hill coefficients of Na+ and K+. The factors (urea, DS-Na) which cause a more pronounced decrease in the amount of beta-protomer reduce the nH of Na+ for Na+, K+-ATPase and nH of K+ for Na+, K+-ATPase and K+-pNPPase to unit. The analysis of the effects of ATP and pNPP indicates that ATP has a protective effect only in the case of urea and DS-Na, but this effect is not exerted by pNPP (nonallosteric substrate). A conclusion is drawn that cooperative interactions of Na+, K+-ATPase from the brain with Na+ require more higher level of the oligomeric structure of enzyme than cooperative interactions with K+. At the same time these cooperative interactions in the both cases need subunits interactions in the protomer and interactions between cation sites with relatively high affinity.


The paper presents the results of SiC nanocrystal characterization using photoluminescence spectroscopy technique. Earlier it was shown that original SiC wafers and porous SiC (PSiC) layers have been characterized by 6H-SiC crystal type with inclusions of 4H-, 15R- and 2H- SiC polytypes. The study of photoluminescence in PSiC layers with different nanocrystal (NC) sizes reveals the intensity stimulation for exciton-related PL bands in NCs of different SiC polytypes. The intensity enhancement for exciton-related PL bands is attributed to the exciton recombination rate increasing due to the realization of exciton weak confinement and exciton-polariton coupling in SiC NCs. The numerical simulation has been done for the dependence of exciton recombination rate versus SiC NC sizes at the assumption of exciton-polariton coupling model.


This paper presents development and learning in early childhood as a fully integrated and embodied experience, which is available for use in dance/movement therapy to help pre-school aged children bridge the gap between non-verbal expression and verbal communication. Cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of intelligence begin to accumulate in infancy by physically interacting with the environment. These interactions are enacted and refined through developmental patterns of movement and expression that have been laid out in the frameworks of the Kestenberg Movement Profile, Body-Mind Centering, Laban Movement Analysis, and Bartenieff Fundamentals. The wealth of knowledge, which is accumulated through bodily sensations and interactions with the environment and is initially non-verbal, becomes the foundation for communication with self and others. The gap to be bridged pertains to the transition from the non-verbal and embodied means of growth, learning, and communication of the first three years of life to the verbal manner of expression and learning utilized in formal education. Dance/movement therapy is a modality that taps into embodied knowledge. It can help young children to cognitively understand their emotional experiences in social contexts through the exploration of their movement patterns and rhythms, which express needs to themselves and others non-verbally. Once a child understands, and can verbalize their embodied experience, dance/movement therapy then offers a chance to practice using their words to communicate these thoughts, feelings, and needs more effectively through verbal means.


Objective: To explore whether CYP3A inhibition by metronidazole is the primary mechanism by which metronidazole interacts with coadministered CYP3A substrates. Data Sources: Literature was accessed using the MEDLINE database (1966–February 2007). Search terms included metronidazole, cytochrome P450, CYP3A4, CYP3A5, drug interactions, and P-glycoprotein. References from pertinent articles, as well as from tertiary sources, were also considered. Study Selection and Data Extraction: All articles identified from the data sources that were published in English were evaluated. Case reports and pharmacokinetic evaluations were included. Data Synthesis: Elevated plasma concentrations and toxicities have been reported for a number of CYP3A substrates including amiodarone, carbamazepine, quinidine, tacrolimus, and cyclosporine when administered with metronidazole. This has led to the widespread belief that metronidazole is a significant inhibitor of CYP3A4. However, 4 pharmacokinetic studies conducted in humans showed that metronidazole did not increase plasma concentrations of the CYP3A substrates midazolam, erythromycin, cyclosporine, and alprazolam, thereby refuting the suggestion that metronidazole is a CYP3A4/5 inhibitor. Conclusions: Drug interactions between metronidazole and certain CYP3A substrates do not appear to result from CYP3A4/5 inhibition by metronidazole. Until any mechanism is identified by which metronidazole alters the disposition of certain CYP3A substrates, drug interactions with this agent should be assessed on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the safety index of the coadministered drug and the availability of equally effective substitutes for either metronidazole or the drug with which it putatively interacts.


This paper compares and contrasts the processes used by the European, United Kingdom and Scottish parliaments in considering broadband policies, legislation, regulatory systems and outcomes, within a complex triple-tiered governance system. Broadband is of increasing importance due to the digitalisation government services and of political processes, potentially excluding those without access from benefits and influence. Operators initially deliver new services in profitable areas, determined by the economics offensiveness, then more widely. Demands to accelerate and extend availability and to increase adoption generated modifications to legislation and regulations to increase investment incentives, plus the provision of state aid and the training of non-users. Parliamentarians had to reconcile demands for services from citizens and constituents with the lobbying of perators. The issues are economically and technologically complex, with inquiries having to cut through terminology, economics, lobbying and threats of litigation. The European Parliament scrutinises and adopts framework legislation for an increasingly diverse set of member states. The UK parliament has limited roles in EU legislation; scrutiny of tests and of ministers negotiating in Council. Its scommittees have been engaged with state aid for rural provision, and oversight of the ministry and regulatory authority.The Scottish Parliament has notionally no role, broadband being a reserved matter, but has produced one report. It failed to examine the proposals for broadband governance after independence, for which there were two irreconcilable proposals and an impossibly tight timetable to split the market.


Nowadays we are noticing important changes in the way High Performance Computing (HPC) providers are dealing with the demand. The growing requirements of modern data- and compute-intensive applications ask for new models for their development, deployment and execution. New approaches related with Big Data, peta- and exa-scale computing are going to dramatically change the design, development and exploitation of highly demanding applications, such as the HPC ones. Due to the increased complexity of these applications and their outstanding requirements which cannot be supported by the classical centralized cloud models, novel approaches, inspired by autonomic computing, are investigated as an alternative. In this paper, we offer an overview of such an approach, undertaken by the CloudLightning initiative. In this context, a novel cloud delivery model that offers the capabilities to describe and deliver dynamic and tailored services is being considered. This new delivery model, based on a self-organizing and self-managing approach, will allow provisioning and delivery of coalitions of heterogeneous cloud resources, built on top of the resources hosted by a cloud service provider.


The Henry Review of Australia's Future Tax System (2009), made several recommendations to promote resilience, fairness, and prosperity via tax reform. Some of the key reforms suggested include a reduction in Australia's federally-imposed corporate income tax rate from 30 to 25 per cent; and the removal of property transfer duties levied by state governments. The review by Henry et al. (2009) utilised a long-run, comparative static computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Australian economy to study the tax system. Implicit within this framework is a single layer of government. In reality, Australia's state government levied tax rates differ across the eight states and territories; some, such as state land tax, health insurance and life insurance levies, are applied in a subset of states and territories only. A general lack of interstate coordination is evident in setting, developing and reforming Australian tax policy. In this paper, we present a meticulous and detailed analysis of Australia's state and federal tax system, using a bottom-up multi-regional CGE model of Australia's states and territories, called VURMTAX. The general framework underlying VURMTAX is similar to the Monash multi-regional forecasting (MMRF) model and its successor VURM; see Adams et al. (2015). A state/local government agent therefore operates within each region, with an overarching federal government agent operating across all state and territories. VURMTAX differs from MMRF/VURM in several ways. For example, we include new theory to model the interaction between Australia's corporate and personal tax system via full dividend imputation. This involves the introduction of two types of investment agents: foreign and local investors. In VURMTAX, the tax rate levied on corporate profits accruing to these two classes of investor differ, because only the domestic investor can claim franking credits. We also give careful consideration to industry-specific foreign capital ownership shares. This means the mining sector, for example, has a larger foreign capital ownership share than the economy-wide average in VURMTAX. We also modify the standard Klein-Rubin utility function that governs the consumption choices facing region-specific representative households in MMRF/VURM, to take account of important distortions in consumer choice caused by Australia's tax system. More specifically, we model the impact of housing tenure choice distortions introduced by owner-occupied housing exemptions in state land taxes and personal income tax, using a nested CES framework. The elasticity of substitution between rented and owner-occupied housing is then calibrated based on findings from an appropriately specified discrete choice model of housing tenure choice. We also alter the standard household decision theory to properly account for the impact of property transfer duties on the demand for the bundle of goods typically consumed by households or businesses when moving house or factory/office. We call this bundle of goods moving services. These services include real estate services contracted to sell a house/buy a property, legal services contracted to prepare necessary transfer forms, and public administration services that are demanded to formally update title office documents. We also account for the impact of motor vehicle taxes on transport modal choice by households. As such, when the motor vehicle registration duty is increased in VURMTAX, we allow for direct modal substitution between, e.g, road passenger transport (taxis), and private transport. Among other theoretical developments, we account for the impact of jurisdiction-specific payroll tax thresholds in Australia on the output levels of monopolistically competitive firms, which yields insights into whether a reduction in payroll tax rates or a rise in payroll tax thresholds are more effective means of stimulating a regional economy. We also embed within VURMTAX a detailed equation system to account for Australia's goods and services tax (GST). We apply this new theory to quantify: (i) the relative economic efficiency of unilateral state tax policy reforms in a single Australian state, New South Wales (NSW); (ii) the excess burden of Australia's three main federally-imposed taxes; and (iii) the broader macroeconomic, state and industry impacts of federal tax policy, and unilateral state tax policy, reforms. Our assessment of the relative efficiency of NSW state and Australian federal taxes yields a set of marginal and average excess burdens, which are summarised and discussed. In total, we calculate excess burdens for nineteen major Australian taxes, of which sixteen are levied at the state/local government level. In addition to our study of the allocative efficiency impacts of the various state and federal taxes, detailed long-run (21 years postreform) results are provided and described, to quantify the economic and industry effects of Australian tax policy reforms. With regard to state taxes, we find residential property transfer duties to be the most damaging of the state government levied taxes. More specifically, we derive a marginal excess burden for residential property transfer duties that exceeds 100 cents per dollar of revenue raised. Contrary to many past studies of Australia's tax system, we also derive a negative marginal excess burden for company tax in Australia. We compare and contrast this result to past studies, and elucidate some key differences in parameter assumptions and modelling methodology that drive this result.


This paper studies the role of the credit crunch in the severe contraction of trade and economic activity at the height of the 2008-09 global financial crisis, using firm-level data from six emerging market economies in Asia. We construct firm-specific measures of global demand, which allow us to disentangle the effect of falling demand from that of financial constraints on sales. The results indicate that: (1) Although the fall in demand adversely affected the sales of all firms during the crisis, sales declined by less for firms with better pre-crisis financial conditions. (2) In the face of the decline in external financing opportunities, some firms relied more on trade credit from suppliers to supplement operating capital during the crisis, which allowed them to post relatively better sales. (3) Export-intensive firms with comparable financial vulnerability resorted less to trade credit as an alternative source of finance, and hence experienced sharper declines in sales than the domestically-oriented firms. These findings point to the presence of credit frictions among the factors that contributed to the disproportionately large decline in international trade during the crisis.


Abstract In 1993, Merck & Co., Inc. began an endeavor to make a significant and visible commitment to improving science education by creating the Merck Institute for Science Education (MISE) and supported the new venture with a 10-year, $20-million financial commitment. From its inception, MISE had two goals: to raise the interest, participation, and performance of public school students in science, and to demonstrate to other businesses that direct, focused involvement would hasten the improvement of science teaching and learning in the public schools. MISE initiated its work by forming partnerships with four public school districts — Linden, Rahway, and Readington Township in New Jersey, and North Penn in Pennsylvania — where Merck has major facilities. CPRE was contracted by MISE in 1993 to document the implementation of the initiative and assess its impact on districts, schools, classrooms, and students. Throughout the evaluation, CPRE conducted interviews with teachers, instructional leaders, and district personnel; surveyed teachers; developed case studies of schools; and examined student achievement data in order to provide feedback on the progress of the MISE Partnership


An estimation of stature from the whole length of limb bones is well documented. However, skeletal remains available for forensic work are often fragmentary. This study presents a prediction of the femoral length using markers on its proximal and distal ends. A total of 400 South African White and Black adult dried femora, devoid of gross pathology, and grouped by sex were obtained from the Raymond Dart Collection of Human Skeletons in the Department of Anatomical Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The Maximum Femoral Length (FL), Neck-Shaft Angle (NSA), Neck Length (NL), Maximum Vertical Diameter of the Head of Femur (VDH), Intertrochanteric Apical Axis Length (ITAAL), Upper Breadth of the Femur (VHA), and Lateral Condyle Height (LCH) were measured. The data were statistically analysed using the various components of a PC version of SAS soft ware program. The student's t-test was used to calculate the significant differences of means between the sexes and races within the study sample as well as with other studies. The critical value for statistical significance was placed at the 0.05 level. Correlation coefficients between femoral length and the other variables were calculated. The length of femur significantly and positively correlated with all segment measurements in both races and sexes. Femoral length was regressed on segment measurements individually and in combination and simple as well as multiple linear regression equations were developed for White and Black South Africans. Stepwise selection procedure was employed to formulate the multilinear regression equations. Most of the models developed in the present study are significant at p< 0.0001, r values are high, and standard errors of the estimates (S.E.E.) are very low. Therefore, the equations developed in this study present a reasonable degree of accuracy for the estimation of femoral length from its proximal and distal segments in South African Whites and Blacks. Once the length of femur is established, it is possible to calculate living stature of the individual with a reasonable degree of precision. The necessity of population and sex specific regression models is addressed.


Abstract Old oaks (Quercus spp.) and their fauna are rare and threatened all over Europe including Turkey. Preliminary results are presented from a study in Turkey using window traps in a cemetery with old hollow oaks. In total, 87 beetle species were identified and the number of beetle species was the highest from the families Elateridae, Anobiidae and Tenebrionidae. Several of the species are considered to be very rare in Europe and one of the species will be described as new to science (Mycetochara sp.). Species composition was surprisingly high when compared to similar studies in the region.


BACKGROUND
The facial fracture biomodel is a three-dimensional physical prototype of an actual facial fracture. The biomodel can be used as a novel teaching tool to facilitate technical skills training in fracture reduction and fixation, but more importantly, can help develop diagnostic and management competence.

OBJECTIVE
To introduce the 'facial fracture biomodel' as a teaching aid, and to provide preliminary evidence of its effectiveness in teaching residents the principles of panfacial fracture repair.

METHODS
Computer three-dimensional image processing and rapid prototyping were used to generate an accurate physical model of a panfacial fracture, mounted in a silicon 'soft tissue' base. Senior plastic surgery residents in their third, fourth and fifth years of training across Canada were invited to participate in a workshop using this biomodel to simulate panfacial fracture repair. A short didactic presentation outlining the 'patient's' clinical and radiological findings, and key principles of fracture repair, was given by a consultant plastic surgeon before the exercise. The residents completed a pre- and postbiomodel questionnaire soliciting information regarding background, diagnosis and management, and feedback.

RESULTS
A total of 29 residents completed both pre- and postbiomodel questionnaires. Statistically significant results were found in the following areas: diagnosis of all fracture patterns (P=8.2×10(-7) [t test]), choice of incisions for adequate exposure (P=0.04 [t test]) and identifying sequence of repair (P=0.019 [χ(2) test]). Subjective evaluation of workshop effectiveness revealed a statistically significant increase in 'comfort level' only among third year trainees. Overall, positive feedback was reported among all participants.

CONCLUSIONS
Biomodelling is a promising ancillary teaching aid that can assist in teaching residents technical skills, as well as how to assess and plan surgical repair.


The "oligopoly problem"--the question of how prices are formed when the market contains only a few competitors--is one of the more persistent problems in the history of economic thought. In this book Xavier Vives applies a modern game-theoretic approach to develop a theory of oligopoly pricing. Vives begins by relating classic contributions to the field--including those of Cournot, Bertrand, Edgeworth, Chamberlin, and Robinson--to modern game theory. In his discussion of basic game-theoretic tools and equilibrium, he pays particular attention to recent developments in the theory of supermodular games. The middle section of the book, an in-depth treatment of classic static models, provides specialized existence results, characterizations of equilibria, extensions to large markets, and an analysis of comparative statics with a view toward applied work. The final chapters examine commitment issues, entry, information transmission, and collusion using a variety of tools: two-stage games, the modeling of competition under asymmetric information and mechanism design theory, and the theory of repeated and dynamic games, including Markov perfect equilibrium and differential games.


The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of some materials and drugs on Entamoeba gingivalis culture which was isolated from gums in gingivitis patients who attended to the زيزع ءاسنلا سنوي نورلارو 41 periodental disease department at the college of Dentistry/ Mosul University, at the period from August to October 2018. Five different concentrations of Flagyl, Ketamine, Bowsella and Apignein were prepared then added to the culture media of the parasite at three periods (2, 4, 6) hours. as (0.0001, 0.0002, 0.0004, 0.0008, 0.0016) microgram/ml. Statistical analysis showed that there were significant difference between concentrations and time which showed that best concentrations were 0.0016 mg/ml for Flagyl, Ketamine, Apignein which inhibit parasite growth as (0.0, 4.73j, 9.53g) respectively also reduced parasite survival rate at (100%, 72.81%, 54.4%) respectively in the time period at (6 hours) while Bowsella at 0.0008 mg/ml inhibition of parasite growth to (5.47l) also reduced parasite survival rate to (72.04%) compared together concentrations and time periods (2, 4) hours which showed slight differences between them.


Abstract Many perennial bioenergy grasses have the potential to escape cultivation and invade natural areas. We quantify dispersal, a key component in invasion, for two bioenergy candidates:Miscanthus sinensis and M. × giganteus. For each species, approximately 1 × 106 caryopses dispersed anemochorously from a point source into traps placed in annuli near the source (0.5 to 5 m; 1.6 to 16.4 ft) and in arcs (10 to 400 m) in the prevailing wind direction. For both species, most caryopses (95% for M. sinensis and 77% for M. × giganteus) were captured within 50 m of the source, but a small percentage (0.2 to 3%) were captured at 300 m and 400 m. Using a maximum-likelihood approach, we evaluated the degree of support in our empirical dispersal data for competing functions to describe seed-dispersal kernels. Fat-tailed functions (lognormal, Weibull, and gamma (Γ)) fit dispersal patterns best for both species overall, but because M. sinensis dispersal distances were significantly affected by wind speed, curves were also fit separately for dispersal distances in low, moderate, and high wind events. Wind speeds shifted the M. sinensis dispersal curve from a thin-tailed exponential function at low speeds to fat-tailed lognormal functions at moderate and high wind speeds. M. sinensis caryopses traveled farther in higher wind speeds (low, 30 m; moderate, 150 m; high, 400 m). Our results demonstrate the ability of Miscanthus caryopses to travel long distances and raise important implications for potential escape and invasion of fertile Miscanthus varieties from bioenergy cultivation. Nomenclature: Eulaliagrass, Miscanthus sinensis Anderss.; giant miscanthus, Miscanthus × giganteus Anderss Interpretive Summary: Eulaliagrass (Miscanthus sinensis) has already escaped from ornamental plantings to form large naturalized populations hundreds of meters from original planting locations (Quinn et al. 2010). Our results suggest that these new populations could have established following long-distance seed dispersal. Because the potential for long-distance dispersal and subsequent establishment has been demonstrated, it is important to take preventive measures to avoid further propagule pressure and gene flow into naturalized populations. As has been pointed out, breeders of bioenergy and ornamental varieties can take steps to minimize the potential for escape by selecting for nonshattering seedheads, engineering glabrous seeds, and inducing sterility (Quinn et al. 2010). Our results indicate a strong effect of wind speed on dispersal distance in M. sinensis. Growers should be aware of the need to monitor for escaped plants, particularly if producing fertile varieties. Because we show that most giant miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus) and M. sinensis seeds were trapped near the source, exhaustive monitoring efforts should be conducted on a regular basis within 50 m of production fields. In addition, because we know that a small proportion of seeds can disperse several hundred meters from a source, growers should also coordinate efforts with local land managers to ensure early detection and control of escaped plants in nearby natural areas.


The spatial implications of Global and Australian national trends in economy, society and environment are diverse. At a sub-national level these combine with local trends and issues to create unique regional milieu through which an integrated approach to sustainability may be negotiated. A change in government process may be required for sustainability to be implemented, and sub-national governance mechanisms are increasingly seen as important in enacting sustainability on the ground. Yet in Western Australia, large land mass and low population density means that neither State nor Local Governments are well equipped for this task. Western Australian regional policy and governance structures, as well as Commonwealth economic and regional policy trends, are important influences on regional sustainability. Both the Draft Western Australian State Sustainability Strategy and the Draft Statement of Regional Policy for Western Australia support a regional approach to sustainability planning. Yet models of regional governance organisation for the implementation of regional sustainability in Western Australia, such as regional associations of Local Governments, and Regional Development Commissions need to be further developed. It is at this regional level where partnerships between community, government and business may emerge to enact regionally appropriate initiatives for sustainability. For this to occur, community participation and government process that enables community participation to influence decision making is necessary. Regional approaches to natural resource management provide insight into the way that a regional approach to sustainability planning and organisation may evolve. Trends that influence regional issues and Commonwealth and Western Australian regional policy and structures provide a broad context for the development of regional sustainability strategies. Analysis of these issues and of the insights that may be gained from ideals for enabling governance mechanisms and regional natural resource management projects to facilitate regional sustainability are presented.


In comparison with most methods focusing on $3D$ rigid object recognition and manipulation, deformable objects are more common in our real life but attract less attention. Generally, most existing methods for deformable object manipulation suffer two issues, 1) Massive demonstration: repeating thousands of robot-object demonstrations for model training of one specific instance; 2) Poor generalization: inevitably re-training for transferring the learned skill to a similar/new instance from the same category. Therefore, we propose a category-level deformable $3D$ object manipulation framework, which could manipulate deformable $3D$ objects with only one demonstration and generalize the learned skills to new similar instances without re-training. Specifically, our proposed framework consists of two modules. The Nocs State Transform $(NST)$ module transfers the observed point clouds of the target to a pre-defined unified pose state (i.e.,Nocs state), which is the foundation for the category-level manipulation learning; the Neural Spatial Encoding $(NSE)$ module generalizes the learned skill to novel instances by encoding the category-level spatial information to pursue the expected grasping point without re-training. The relative motion path is then planned to achieve autonomous manipulation. Both the simulated results via our $\text{Cap}_{40}$ dataset and real robotic experiments justify the effectiveness of our framework.


Kyoto Protocol incorporates the international flexibility mechanisms such as emissions trading, etc., in addition to setting the quantified commitments for Annex I Parties. The Protocol also recognizes the importance of domestic actions, and supports the concept of supplementarity in the Articles 6 and 17. EU proposes to limit the tradeable amounts of emissions to meet this concept. A new idea to develop common physical performance indicators is proposed in this paper. This proposal reflects the spirit of the Article 2 of the Protocol and is expected both to promote domestic actions in Annex I Parties and also to develop international cooperative framework.


Workers exposed to respirable crystalline silica used in abrasive blasting are at increased risk of developing a debilitating and often fatal fibrotic lung disease called silicosis. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends that silica sand be prohibited as abrasive blasting material and that less hazardous materials be used in blasting operations. However, data are needed on the relative risks associated with exposure to abrasive blasting materials other than silica. NIOSH has completed acute studies in rats (Hubbs et al., 2001; Porter et al., 2002). To provide dose-response data applicable to making recommendation for occupational exposure limits, NIOSH has collaborated with the National Toxicology Program (NTP) to design longer term studies with silica substitutes. For risk assessment purposes, selected doses will include concentrations that are relevant to human exposures. Rat lung burdens achieved should be comparable to those estimated in humans with working lifetime exposures, even if this results in "overloading" doses in rats. To quantify both dose and response, retained particle burdens in the lungs and lung-associated lymph nodes will be measured, as well as biochemical and pathological indices of pulmonary response. This design will facilitate assessment of the pulmonary fibrogenic potential of inhaled abrasive blasting agents at occupationally relevant concentrations.


ABSTRACT The most important role of susceptibility testing is to identify potentially resistant isolates for the agent being evaluated. Standard testing guidelines recently have been proposed for antifungal susceptibility testing of filamentous fungi (molds). This collaborative (eight centers) study evaluated further newly proposed guidelines (NCCLS, proposed standard M38-P, 1998) and other testing conditions for antifungal susceptibility testing of Aspergillus spp. to itraconazole and three new triazoles, posaconazole (SCH56592), ravuconazole (BMS-207147), and voriconazole. MICs of itraconazole, posaconazole, ravuconazole, and voriconazole for 15 selected isolates of three species of Aspergillus (A. fumigatus, A. flavus, and A. terreus) with well documented in vitro, clinical, or animal data were determined in each center by using four medium formulations (standard RPMI-1640 [RPMI], RPMI with 2% dextrose, antibiotic medium 3 [M3], and M3 with 2% dextrose) and two criteria of MIC determination (complete [MIC-0s] and prominent [MIC-2s] growth inhibition) at 24, 48, and 72 h. The highest reproducibility (92 to 99%) was seen with the standard RPMI and M3 media. Moreover, the distinction between itraconazole-resistant (MICs of >8 μg/ml for clinically resistant strains) and -susceptible (MICs of 0.03 to 1 μg/ml) isolates, as well as between a voriconazole-resistant laboratory mutant and other isolates (voriconazole MICs of 2 to >8 versus 0.12 to 2 μg/ml), was more consistently evident with the standard RPMI medium and when MIC-0s were determined at 48 h. These results provide further refinement of the testing guidelines for susceptibility testing ofAspergillus spp. and warrant consideration for inclusion in the future NCCLS document M38-A.


BOS172722 (CCT289346) is a highly potent, selective, and orally bioavailable inhibitor of spindle assembly checkpoint kinase MPS1. BOS172722 treatment alone induces significant sensitization to death, particularly in highly proliferative triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell lines with compromised spindle assembly checkpoint activity. BOS172722 synergizes with paclitaxel to induce gross chromosomal segregation defects caused by MPS1 inhibitor–mediated abrogation of the mitotic delay induced by paclitaxel treatment. In in vivo pharmacodynamic experiments, BOS172722 potently inhibits the spindle assembly checkpoint induced by paclitaxel in human tumor xenograft models of TNBC, as measured by inhibition of the phosphorylation of histone H3 and the phosphorylation of the MPS1 substrate, KNL1. This mechanistic synergy results in significant in vivo efficacy, with robust tumor regressions observed for the combination of BOS172722 and paclitaxel versus either agent alone in long-term efficacy studies in multiple human tumor xenograft TNBC models, including a patient-derived xenograft and a systemic metastasis model. The current target indication for BOS172722 is TNBC, based on their high sensitivity to MPS1 inhibition, the well-defined clinical patient population with high unmet need, and the synergy observed with paclitaxel.


We define the notion of a finite-time singularity of a vector field and then discuss a technique suitable for the asymptotic analysis of vector fields and their integral curves in the neighborhood of such a singularity. Having in mind the application of this method to cosmology, we also provide an analysis of the time singularities of an isotropic universe filled with a perfect fluid in general relativity.


: In the light of an analysis of epiretinal membrane formations, both clinical and histopathological, a stage classification of these membranes is proposed. Three stages are distinguished, characterized by their clinical picture and their morphology. Simple epiretinal membranes, the so-called cellophane macula, may be distinguished from more complex membranes with and without major traction on the retina. Whereas, histopathologically, the simple epiretinal membranes contain one cell system, the more complex membranes are composed of two or three cell types. Membranes with major traction are remarkable for the presence of contractile intracytoplasmic elements. On the basis of the authors' findings epiretinal membrane formation seems to be a uniform reaction caused by several etiologic factors; therefore, the term proliferative vitreoretinal reaction is proposed for epiretinal membrane formations.


According to BS7448 fracture toughness test standard, crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) for ASTM A333 Gr.6 low temperature steel which is used in offshore platform were carried out in low temperature (0°C, -29°C). Three point bending tests were conducted on the specimens, the dimension of which is B×2B (B is the thickness) and notch direction is NP. The final value of CTOD was calculated by P-V curves of both the welds and HAZ (heat affected zone). And the experimental results were analyzed and discussed in the paper. The low temperature steel welded joints show good low temperature toughness, the selected welding procedure is applied to construction of pipelines.The CTOD value of HAZ is larger than weld metal and weld is the weakest position in the whole structure. The experiment results provide an important basis for the choice of welding method and welding process parameters, ECA assessment and construction of offshore platform.


ABSTRACT Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects not only memory but also other cognitive functions, such as orientation, language, praxis, attention, visual perception, or executive function. Most studies on oral communication in AD focus on aphasia; however, speech and orofacial apraxias are also present in these patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of speech and orofacial apraxias in patients with AD with the hypothesis that apraxia severity is strongly correlated with disease severity. Methods: Ninety participants in different stages of AD (mild, moderate, and severe) underwent the following assessments: Clinical Dementia Rating, Mini-Mental State Examination, Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, a specific speech and orofacial praxis assessment, and the oral agility subtest of the Boston diagnostic aphasia examination. Results: The mean age was 80.2±7.2 years and 73% were women. Patients with AD had significantly lower scores than normal controls for speech praxis (mean difference=−2.9, 95% confidence interval (CI)=−3.3 to −2.4) and orofacial praxis (mean difference=−4.9, 95% CI=−5.4 to −4.3). Dementia severity was significantly associated with orofacial apraxia severity (moderate AD: β=−19.63, p=0.011; and severe AD: β=−51.68, p < 0.001) and speech apraxia severity (moderate AD: β=7.07, p = 0.001; and severe AD: β= 8.16, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Speech and orofacial apraxias were evident in patients with AD and became more pronounced with disease progression.


This article argues that there is a profound connection between the public service and moral justification. In this age of globalization, it further argues that public administration would be wise to build on a global ethic. The author argues against a compartmentalized perspective on ethics and in favor of a unity perspective as presented in Garofalo, C. and D. Geuras. 1999. Ethics in the Public Service: The Moral Mind at Work (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press).


A growing body of data indicates that H. pylori colonization of human is ancient, which is consistent with its high prevalence, chronicity of carriage, and generally low level of disease, which, when it occurs has only marginal or no effects on host reproductive capacity. All of these phenomena are markers for a relatively benign co-existence, which may include all of the entire spectrum of interactions from parasitism, through commensalism, to symbiosis. Recent studies suggest the emergence of "quasispecies" during prolonged colonization, and the presence of multiple strains colonizing individual hosts. Such observations suggest that concepts of competition between strains and mutualism will be important in understanding the ecology of colonization and its effects on hosts. The presence of particular pathologies in the host may in part be a function of the characteristics of the bacterial population present. At a genomic level, H. pylori appears to adapt to changing conditions by point mutation, genomic rearrangement, and horizontal gene transfer, the latter is favored by its natural competence. The ability of H. pylori to alter phenotypic properties including superficial Lewis antigen expression and secretion of proinflammatory molecules is evidence of its sensitivity to environmental signals from the host. In such a universe, disease outcomes such as ulceration or neoplasia may be considered as accidents secondary to microbial persistence.


Although IBD was once considered a rare disorder in Asia compared with Western countries, the incidence and prevalence of IBD in Asia have both recently increased. Until now, many Asian physicians treating IBD patients have referred to consensus guidelines provided by Western committees. However, the characteristics of IBD patients differ geographically with respect to epidemiology, phenotype, and genetic susceptibility. The variability of IBD across different countries may alter the practices of different public health care systems, including health insurance coverage, greatly impacting patient outcome. Therefore, it is timely to survey many Asian countries for the current status of IBD patient care with respect to public medical insurance systems, diagnosis, treatment, and quality of care.1,2,3,4

This survey was originally planned by the organizing committee of the Asian Organization for Crohn's and Colitis (AOCC) and designed for one program of the 2nd annual AOCC meeting, which was held in Seoul, Korea in June 2014. The aim of the survey was to identify how Asian physicians diagnose and treat their IBD patients. A survey to determine differences in public medical insurance systems and the quality of care across countries was also performed. This survey consisted of 4 parts including general information (9 items), diagnosis of IBD (18 items), treatment of IBD (30 items), and quality of IBD care (36 items). The survey was conducted through a web-based system between March 2014 and May 2014. The questionnaire was sent to medical doctors caring for IBD patients in Asia via e-mail by members of the organizing committee of the AOCC representing each Asian country. A total of 353 Asian medical doctors treating IBD patients responded to the survey (114 in China, 88 in Japan, 116 in Korea, 17 in Taiwan, 8 in Hong Kong, 4 in India, 3 in Singapore, and 1 each in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia).

In Western countries, IBD affected the personal lives of patients and caused substantial costs to health care systems.5 Wei et al.1 investigated the current status of public medical insurance systems among Asian countries using questionnaires about the costs and insurance coverage rate of costs for IBD, including diagnosis using endoscopy and treatment with 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) and biologics. The results of this survey showed that the public health insurance coverage rate of costs was high in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore, but low in Malaysia and India. This difference affected use of expensive medications, especially biologics. The percentage of CD cases treated with biologics was 30%–40% in Japan, whereas the percentage was only 1% in India. Costs for conventional therapies, such as 5-ASA, steroids, and immunomodulators, were paid by public health insurance in Taiwan, Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Korea, whereas these costs were paid by patients in Singapore, Malaysia, and India. The fecal calprotectin test was available in clinical practice in Singapore and India, costing about US $40 to US $80. However, it was only available for research purposes in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia. Tests for anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) agent serum levels and antibodies against anti-TNF agents were not yet available in all Asian countries.

Kim et al.2 analyzed how Asian physicians approached diagnosis of IBD. It is often difficult to accurately diagnose IBD in Asia due to the presence of various infectious diseases that mimic IBD, which may delay accurate diagnosis. For instance, intestinal tuberculosis, which is relatively prevalent in Asia, presents with similar symptoms as CD. The national diagnostic guidelines for IBD were commonly used in Korea,6,7 China, and Japan,8 but other Asian countries frequently used the "European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation" (ECCO) guidelines. For clinical assessment of disease activity of UC, most physicians used the Mayo Scoring System except Chinese physicians, who commonly used the Truelove and Witts severity index score. The CD activity index was overwhelmingly chosen for the clinical assessment of CD activity by physicians from all Asian countries. For small bowel evaluation in CD, there was a wide range of variation among countries. Physicians from Korea and China predominantly performed CT enterography, whereas those from Japan and other countries preferred small bowel follow through or balloon-assisted enteroscopy. For evaluation of perianal lesions, pelvic MRI was the most commonly used examination in all Asian countries. Across all Asian countries, over 20% of patients were given anti-tuberculosis treatment before CD diagnosis, reflecting the difficulty in discriminating between CD and intestinal tuberculosis, especially in the small bowel.9

Nakase et al.3 investigated IBD treatment protocols throughout Asia and showed that clinical management of IBD patients varied among Asian countries. For example, the frequency of use of certain drugs for IBD treatment such as budesonide and tacrolimus differed among Asian countries, and induction therapies for mild to moderate inflammatory small bowel CD also differed. However, common therapeutic strategies for refractory IBD and active UC were employed throughout Asian countries. Treatment strategies for steroid-refractory acute severe UC were as follows: after initially using intravenous steroids for 5–7 days, most Asian physicians with the exception of those in Japan selected anti-TNF agents, followed by cyclosporine.

Many Japanese physicians favored tacrolimus, followed by anti-TNF agents, while a few Japanese physicians selected apheresis therapies. This result suggests there may be differences in available medical treatments among Asian countries. More than half of physicians in Korea, China, and Japan always tested for cytomegalovirus infection in cases of severe UC. However, only 12% of other Asian physicians always performed this test. Treatment of severe inflammatory small bowel CD greatly differed when comparing Asian and Western countries.10 Only 3% of Asian physicians selected budesonide, while most Asian physicians selected a combination of prednisolone and 5-ASA, followed by anti-TNF agents, nutritional therapy, and thiopurines. Many Asian physicians chose thiopurines and anti-TNF agents for the treatment of steroid-dependent or refractory CD and UC patients.

There is a need to identify risk factors for poor prognosis in Asian CD patients to establish guidelines for early use of anti-TNF therapies. In Western countries, patients with risk factors such as age <40 years at diagnosis, presence of perianal lesions, early need for steroid, severe endoscopic lesions, and the existence of an NOD2/CARD15 mutation would be recommended for early treatment with anti-TNF agents (Top-down therapy).11 When patients become resistant to anti-TNF agent therapy, serum levels of anti-TNF agents or antibodies to infliximab or adalimumab are measured to determine subsequent therapeutic strategies such as increasing the dose of anti-TNF agents or changing to another anti-TNF agent.12 However, most Asian physicians answered "No" when asked whether they monitored serum infliximab levels or antibodies to infliximab. Facilities for monitoring of these values were limited in Asian countries.

Song et al.4 evaluated the current status of quality of IBD care in Asian countries using a questionnaire-based survey developed by the American Gastroenterological Association entitled "an adult IBD physician performance measures set" that comprised 11 specific measures.13 The results showed that 7 of the 11 performance measures were executed well by more than 70% of physicians in Asian countries. Tuberculosis screening before anti-TNF therapy and documentation of IBD were consistently among the highest ranked measures, whereas pneumococcal immunization and prophylaxis of venous thromboembolisms (VTEs) in hospitalized patients were the lowest ranked in all countries. These lower ranked performance measures among Asian countries were comparable to a similarly low compliance in Western countries.14 In this survey, only 24% of Asian physicians performed well in considering prophylaxis for VTEs, likely due to limited data about the risk of VTEs in Asian IBD patients leading physicians to consider this practice unimportant.

Awareness of performance measures differed among Asian countries. For example, 72.4% of Korean vs. 39.8% of Japanese physicians reported awareness of pneumococcal immunization, while 60% of Korean vs. 48.9% of Japanese physicians reported awareness of influenza immunization. Reasons for non-performance varied among countries, especially with regard to lower ranked performance measures. For instance, pneumococcal and influenza immunizations were considered unimportant in most Asian countries, whereas lack of time was the main reason these immunizations were not performed in Korea. This survey had limitations since relying on the memories of the physicians may not accurately reflect actual performance in each country.

These 4 articles report the results of the first survey to assess the public medical insurance system, diagnosis, treatment, and quality of care for IBD in multiple Asian countries. There is currently no guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of IBD in Asian patients. Therefore, many Asian physicians commonly use guidelines of Western countries, such as the ECCO guidelines. These articles in the current issue of Intestinal Research may be the cornerstone to establishing specific guidelines for the improved management of IBD patients in Asian countries.


We assune that the reader is familiar with the ubiquity of information in the modern world and is sympathetic with the need for restricting rights to read, add, modify, or delete information in specific contexts. This need is particularly acute for systems having computers as significant components.


Decision support systems are generally geared to short-term tactical decision making. As an alternative, this paper develops a mathematical programming model to evaluate long-term strategic alternatives in the context of farm-level agricultural production where a broiler farm considers long-term implications of diversification into commercial aquaculture. The model considers a ten-year strategic planning horizon, incorporates financial risk and return considerations, and accommodates capacity variations. Results indicate that a diversification strategy significantly increases farm profitability over a strategic planning horizon while simultaneously maintaining financial risk below a predetermined tolerance level and return on investment above a predetermined level.


Background Low activity levels in inpatient rehabilitation are associated with adverse outcomes. The study aimed to test whether activity levels can be increased by the provision of monitored activity data to patients and clinicians in the context of explicit goal setting. Methods A randomized controlled trial in three sites in Australia included 255 inpatients aged 60 and older who had a rehabilitation goal to become ambulant. The primary outcome was patients' walking time measured by accelerometers during the rehabilitation admission. Walking times from accelerometry were made available daily to treating therapists and intervention participants to motivate patients to improve incidental activity levels and reach set goals. For the control group, 'usual care' was followed, including the setting of mobility goals; however, for this group, neither staff nor patients received data on walking times to aid the setting of daily walking time targets. Results The median daily walking time in the intervention group increased from 10.3 minutes at baseline to 32.1 minutes at day 28, compared with an increase from 9.5 to 26.5 minutes per day in the control group. Subjects in the intervention group had significantly higher non-therapy walking time by about 7 minutes [mean (95% CI): 24.6 (21.7, 27.4)] compared to those in the control group [mean(95% CI): 17.3 (14.4, 20.3)] (p = 0.001). Conclusions Daily feedback to patients and therapists using an accelerometer increased walking times during rehabilitation admissions. The results of this study suggest objective monitoring of activity levels could provide clinicians with information on clinically important, mobility-related activities to assist goal setting. Trial Registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12611000034932 http://www.ANZCTR.org.au/


The presence of various uncertainty sources in metal-based additive manufacturing (AM) process prevents producing AM products with consistently high quality. Using electron beam melting (EBM) of Ti-6Al-4V as an example, this paper presents a data-driven framework for process parameters optimization using physics-informed computer simulation models. The goal is to identify a robust manufacturing condition that allows us to constantly obtain equiaxed materials microstructures under uncertainty. To overcome the computational challenge in the robust design optimization under uncertainty, a two-level data-driven surrogate model is constructed based on the simulation data of a validated high-fidelity multiphysics AM simulation model. The robust design result, indicating a combination of low preheating temperature, low beam power, and intermediate scanning speed, was acquired enabling the repetitive production of equiaxed structure products as demonstrated by physics-based simulations. Global sensitivity analysis at the optimal design point indicates that among the studied six noise factors, specific heat capacity and grain growth activation energy have the largest impact on the microstructure variation. Through this exemplar process optimization, the current study also demonstrates the promising potential of the presented approach in facilitating other complicate AM process optimizations, such as robust designs in terms of porosity control or direct mechanical property control.


Many techniques for the surface modification of titanium and its alloys have been proposed from the viewpoint of improving bioactivity. This paper contains an overview of surface treatment methods, including coating with hydroxyapatite (HAp), an osteoconductive compound. There are two types of coating methods: pyroprocessing and hydroprocessing. In this paper, hydroprocessing for coating on the titanium substrate with HAp, carbonate apatite (CO3–Ap), a CO3–Ap/CaCO3 composite, HAp/collagen, and a HAp/gelatin composite is outlined. Moreover, evaluation by implantation of surface-modified samples in rat tibiae is described.


Total phenolic test on the results of partial fractionation of the extracted layers of Sea Bamboo (Isis hippuris) showed ethyl acetate fraction as much as 8.49±0.15 mg GAE/g followed by the ethanol fraction at 5.26±0.13 mg GAE/g and n-hexane fraction at 3.24±0.16 mg GAE/g. Meanwhile, the result of total flavonoids for ethanol and n-hexane fraction was 6.67%, whilst for ethyl acetate fraction was 5.13%. The test results on antioxidant activities using DPPH showed ethanol fraction as much as 1795.08 ppm, n-hexane fraction 1888.45 ppm and ethyl acetate fraction 2014.54 ppm. The results of FTIR chromatogram showed that there were 9 peaks of ethanol fraction, 10 peaks of ethyl acetate fraction and 12 peaks of n-hexane fraction. GC-MS data analysis on the outer layers of Sea Bamboo (Isis hippuris) revealed 53 compounds of ethanol fraction, 40 compounds of ethyl acetate fraction, and 50 compounds of n-hexane fraction. The most dominant compounds were 2-butoxyethanol (43.68%) of ethanol fraction, Methyl-D-mannopyranoside (20.41%) of n-hexane fraction, and 2-Myristynoyl-glycinamide (19.51%) of ethyl acetate fraction.
Keywords: Sea bamboo, phenols, flavonoids, Isis hippuris, antioxidant, DPPH, GC-MS, FTIR